An elevator installation substantially serves for vertical transport of goods or persons. The elevator installation includes for this purpose an elevator car for reception of the goods or persons, which elevator car is movable along a guide path. As a rule, the elevator installation is installed in a building and the elevator car transports goods or persons from and to various floors of this building. In a customary construction the elevator car is installed in a shaft of the building and it contains, apart from the car, support means which connect the car with the counterweight. The elevator car is moved by means of a drive, which acts selectably on the support means or directly on the elevator car or the counterweight. The guide path for guidance of the elevator car is usually a guide rail which is fixedly arranged in the building or in the shaft. From time to time an elevator installation of that kind is also arranged outside a building, wherein then the guide path can be part of a structure. Elevator installations of that kind are equipped with brake systems which on the one hand can hold the elevator car in a stopping position and/or can brake and hold the elevator car in the event of a fault.
An elevator installation with brake equipment is known from patent document EP 1 213 249, in which holding and braking is achieved in that a brake part is brought into mechanically positive contact with a stationary part. The brake part is for that purpose pressed against the stationary part by a small force. In this connection a defined sliding movement, which enables braking, is brought about at the brake part. The brake equipment requires, in particular, low brake actuating forces and thus also low brake release forces.
The problem with this solution is now to be seen in the fact that the brake equipment has to include sliding equipment so as to make possible, in the case of braking, a gentle stopping of the elevator car. This requires, above all in the case of higher speeds, long slide paths and associated elements defining braking force, such as, for example, springs. This necessitates much constructional space and is expensive.